#Making
Entries from the glossary on this subject.
Two ways to get a blade blank. Forging shapes hot steel under force; stamping cuts a cold shape out of sheet. The difference shows up years later.
The final edge put on at a wheel by a person who watches how the two blades meet. On curved instruments no machine has replaced this step.
The heat treatment that sets an instrument’s final hardness. Under-hardened steel goes blunt in months; over-hardened steel chips at the tip.
A protected designation of origin for German blades: an instrument may carry the name only if the decisive steps were done in the Solingen district.